My father hated me.
He said I was just like my mother—full of lies, manipulative and vicious, disgusting to look at.
So, he brought back his old flame’s daughter and treated her like a priceless treasure, giving her everything.
On my eighteenth birthday, with a bald head from chemotherapy, I leaned weakly against the window, watching the city’s fireworks spelling out a father’s love for his daughter.
“Happy birthday to my precious daughter, Sophia Carter.”
I was his daughter, but my name was Emily Carter.
Emily, the extra one.
Lowering my head, I opened my phone and sent him one last message.
“Dad, I’m sick. I’m dying soon. Could you come see me one last time?”
All my desperate hope was answered with his cold, heartless reply.
“Let me know after you’re dead.”
Through blurred tears, I let out a long sigh.
I died on my eighteenth birthday.
But the billionaire father who had never seen me, who had only ever despised me, went insane.
On TV, the news broadcast showed the city’s richest man spending a fortune to rent out New York’s most luxurious hotel for his daughter’s college celebration party.
On the screen, a pretty young girl in a custom-made gown, her styled hair crowned with a sparkling princess tiara, clung to the arm of a successful middle-aged man. Surrounded by admirers, she smiled as if she were the happiest girl in the world.
“Hey, beggar, no panhandling here. Get out.”
Holding a thermos in my hands, I hadn’t even looked away from the hotel lobby’s TV before I was shoved back two steps.
Clutching the frayed hem of my worn shirt, I lifted my head to the scowling security guard and quietly corrected him, “Sir, I’m not a beggar. I came to find someone.”
“Find who?”
I pointed at the man on the TV, pleading earnestly. “Could you please just tell him I’m here? I only want to give him something, then I’ll leave. It won’t take long.”
The guard glanced at the screen, then scoffed. “Do you know who that is? Richard Carter, chairman of Carter Corporation and the city’s richest man. Tonight, he rented the hotel to host his daughter’s celebration. No outsiders are allowed near. Who do you think you are, to ask to see him?”
I lowered my head. I wanted to say he was my father.
But with my calloused hands, torn sneakers, and faded white T-shirt, I would only embarrass him.
Forcing a smile, I said, “Sir, I don’t need to go in. Could you just deliver this for me? It’s Homemade Herbal Soup I made myself. He’s been so busy, drinking too much coffee and skipping meals. I found a retired doctor to get the recipe…”
I pulled all the coins from my pocket and handed them to him. “Please, take this and give it to him.”
The guard stared at the handful of nickels and dimes, speechless.
“This is New York’s top five-star hotel. We can’t just let any stray dogs or cats in.”
Sophia Carter stood nearby, arms crossed, towering over me.
True to her name, in the spotlight of her father’s love she shone like a radiant jewel.
Even when she yanked the thermos out of my hands, no one dared stop her.
She shook it slightly, her gaze filled with disdain. “I’ll take this. But you don’t belong here. Go back to wherever you came from.”
I refused to step back. “That soup is for my dad.”
The next second, Sophia’s eyes suddenly reddened. She clutched the thermos to her chest and collapsed to the floor.
